Judge to hold status hearing on Rebman lawsuit

Administrative law judge contends he was terminated for political reasons

Former state Labor Director Lawrence Rebman still has his administrative law judge's (ALJ) job, thanks to a temporary restraining order issued June 12 by special Judge Robert Schollmeyer.

However, Schollmeyer and Cole County Circuit Judge Dan Green were dropped from the case by change of judge requests - one from each side.

So Circuit Judge Jon Beetem will be holding a counsel status and scheduling hearing at 10 a.m. today.

Rebman filed the 18-page lawsuit June 7 - just a week before he was scheduled to lose his job because of the Legislature's budget bill for the 2018-19 business year that begins July 1.

Rebman complains that the bill eliminated only his job, by cutting funding for salaries for ALJs appointed between Jan. 1, 2012, and Jan. 1, 2015.

Former Gov. Jay Nixon appointed Rebman to an ALJ position in Kansas City on March 8, 2013, during a shake-up in Nixon's administration that removed Rebman from the state Labor and Industrial Relations Department's director's job, and resulted in Gracia Backer's firing from her job as head of the Workers' Compensation Division.

Of the 28 current administrative law judges, Rebman's lawsuit said, his job is the only one that fit that legal description.

However, the lawsuit argued, removing an ALJ generally is limited by statute, and cutting Rebman's position "was not based on his performance as an ALJ or the needs of the Division of Workers' Compensation."

He noted the department had asked for eight more ALJs, which the House approved.

However, the lawsuit said, the Senate rejected the eight additional judges and "targeted" his job "for elimination solely for political reasons."

Those reasons were not explained in the lawsuit.

It was by J. Andrew Hirth, a former assistant attorney general now in private practice in Columbia.

He argued the language in the budget bill affecting Rebman's job is an unconstitutional special law.

"There is no rational basis - much less substantial justification - for the Legislature to eliminate the eighth most recently appointed ALJ while keeping seven others with less experience," Hirth wrote, "and several more with poorer performance and lower productivity than (Rebman)."

The suit also noted the Missouri Constitution says: "The head of each department may select and remove all appointees in the department except as otherwise provided in this constitution, or by law."

So the Legislature's budget line eliminating Rebman's job violated the Constitution's "separation of powers" provisions, the lawsuit said.

Among its other complaints, the suit argued cutting only Rebman's job violated his equal rights under the state Constitution.

The lawsuit said nothing about the circumstances of Rebman's departure from the Nixon administration in March 2013.

Backer and another state Labor Department employee, Lucinda Guthrie, accused Rebman of misconduct over a period of several years, including issuing orders that were beyond his authority as department director.

Backer complained in a separate suit that she was fired for reporting Rebman's troubles to the Nixon administration, while Rebman was transferred to the ALJ position at a salary of more than $100,000 a year.

Guthrie settled her case last year for $1.1 million, while Backer's case was settled in December 2016 for $2 million.